Japanese businessmen passed off Russian goods as allegedly produced on the island of Hokkaido.
For almost two years, ordinary buyers thought that they were buying “domestic products.”
The Japanese company Yamanaka is engaged in the trade of fish from Russia, the Kyodo news agency reports.
The regional agricultural department conducted monitoring and identified fraud in 4 retail outlets.
The packaging stated: “Made in Hokkaido.” In fact, the salmon was brought from Russia, but packaged and labeled in Japan.
Such products were on the shelves from January 2022 to November 2023. During this time, 8 thousand packages were purchased.
The company explained that the reason for this was an ineffective system for notifying retail outlets about a change in supplier.
Store managers thought that Yamanaka was getting its fish from a local producer, but in fact it turned out that the company had begun cooperating with a Russian importer.
It is noted that the Japanese are more willing to buy products from their own country than imported ones. Foreign goods are usually more expensive.
Author: Dmitry Bobrov
